He was last seen with his friend, a drummer who resembles George Harrison of The Beatles, but he wears his hair tied in a small bow in the back

The recent torrent of rain has made a wading pool of our basement. I'd estimate about ten inches of water. Since I've lived here the basement has never flooded. Fortunately, a lot of our stuff is up on pallets and in plastic containers. There have been casualties, however. Janelle's been hanging some of her art work to dry on a couple of clotheslines she rigged in the dining room. We won't know the full extent of the damage until the water subsides. I fear I may have lost some books. I hope my volumes of Gossip Girl emerge unsullied.

Another, and more immediate, casualty of the flood was our furnace. No heat, no hot water. Just got word, though, that the fire dept. will be by tonight to resuscitate the poor chap. We're number fifty on the list. They may not be here for a while.

Rich actually spoke to me tonight. And in an amiable manner, no less. So there's progress for you. When we have a house meeting, we'll hopefully hash out some of this nonsense and at the very least realize there's no need for hostility between us, no matter who things pan out with our living situation.

Harakiri represented, son! Wow, I keep waiting for Kobayashi to disappoint me, but every film I see of his absolutely enchants me. And Tatsuya Nakadai was an incredible actor in his day. He's right up there with Toshiro Mifune. They were the Pacino and DeNiro of Japanese cinema. I'll offer a modest assessment and say Harakiri is a perfect film. Zero complaints. Five out of five stars.

I'm going to try and put a dent in The Big Lebowski tonight. Whenever I tell anyone I've never seen it, I usually get a shocked response. "How could you never have seen it? It's the Big Lebowski, for crissakes!!" I've seen bits of it before, but I never had the ambition to give it a go. Well, it's time to buck up and see what all the hype is about. Hey, it's the Coen Brothers: how bad can it be?

At work today, Therese was wondering out loud if her tennis match would be canceled because of the rain. "We play under a big plastic dome, but I'm sure it's leaking water all over the court."

"That would be no good", I said.

"No, it wouldn't. You shouldn't play in those conditions."

"Nope"

"You shouldn't play tennis if your balls are soaked."

It was then that I performed the heroic deed of not bursting out in laughter. Maybe I've got the mentality of a sixth grader, but it took every ounce of will power to restrain myself. What a hero I am! I'm very impressed with how I kept my composure. In almost any other situation, I would have laughed very loudly and with a great amount of mirth, but, in an effort to be respectful to Therese, and because I didn't want her to know my sense of humor sometimes rides the rails of simplicity, I kept a straight face. What a hero I am!I truly am the King of Kings! (Speaking of that, at another job I used to command my coworker Doug to refer to me as the King of Kings. He decided to disrespect me and call my sexuality into question by instead referring to me as The King of Queens. One of these days he'll realize the error of his ways.)

Ok, I'm out outta here.